The Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) are delighted to announce that all 34 matches in this year’s CPL will be broadcast live on Facebook around the world, via Facebook’s official live streaming partner Grabyo.

CPL will become the first sports league to supplement its existing broadcast deals and use the Facebook Live platform to ensure that 40 countries around the world, including the likes of Pakistan, South Africa and The Philippines can now view the biggest party in sport live. It will also be the first time ever an international cricket match has been broadcast using Facebook Live.

A host of international stars will be competing from across the cricketing world at this year’s CPL including the likes of AB de Villiers, Faf du Plessis, Shakib Al Hasan, Brendon McCullum, Martin Guptill, Shoaib Malik, Kumar Sangakkara, Dale Steyn, Mike Hussey and Shane Watson.

In addition, the six CPL sides – Barbados Tridents, Guyana Amazon Warriors, Jamaica Tallawahs, St. Kitts & Nevis Patriots, St. Lucia Zouks and Trinbago Knight Riders will include a host of ICC World T20 champions including the likes of Carlos Brathwaite, Dwayne Bravo, Chris Gayle and Andre Russell who took the world by storm in India earlier this year.

Cricket fans from Argentina to Hungary will now be able to the world’s biggest T20 stars in action starting with Trinbago Knight Riders clash with St. Lucia Zouks from the Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad on Wednesday, 29 June (9pm Caribbean / 2am GMT / 6.30am India) and running through to the final in St. Kitts & Nevis on 7 August.

Commenting on using Facebook Live, CPL Chief Operations Officer Pete Russell said: “We are delighted to announce how we’re using Facebook Live, which we believe has the potential to change the face of cricket broadcasting and enhance the CPL’s ever-increasing international audience.

“In 2015 the CPL’s global viewership exceeded 93 million and we now have the platform to boost our viewership even further for the forthcoming tournament. Caroline Smith, CPL’s Head of Digital, and her team have done a fantastic job with our social media activity and this deal proves that they have put us ahead of the curve in understanding how best to reach our global fans with live games.

“On Wednesday night the CPL will make television history and in doing so extend our reach to both traditional and non-traditional cricket followers across the world. We are hugely excited about this development and look forward to engaging more followers internationally. I want to thank Grabyo and CPL's production partner, IMG for their combined efforts, hard work and creativity in making this broadcasting first a reality.”

Asha Thacker, Sports Partnerships – Facebook India - “Facebook Live allows fans to connect to cricket and their favourite stars and we are delighted to be working with the Hero Caribbean Premier League and Grabyo for this cricketing first and to help bring fans around the world closer to the game. As the world’s largest sports stadium, more cricket fans engage with content on Facebook than anywhere else and it is unique experiences such as this that allow fans to engage in a more meaningful way.”

Gareth Capon, CEO of Grabyo said, “On the pitch, T20 cricket is helping to globalize and expand the sport of cricket, bringing a new generation of fans into the game. The use of social video, particularly live streaming, presents an opportunity to reach an unparalleled audience far beyond the traditional broadcast ecosystem.

“Facebook offers an user base of 1.6 billion and to be able to bring live action from the best cricketing talent direct to mobile devices around the world, right as the action happens, is incredibly exciting. We look forward to working with the CPL throughout the tournament and helping them use social video to engage new audiences across the globe.”

Grabyo is the leading social video production and publishing platforms, allowing rights holders to share content instantly, and live, to multiple social media platforms. As the leader in real-time social video, Grabyo accelerates video engagement and viral distribution through a unique set of tools hosted on via a cloud-based platform. In addition to helping rights owners grow their digital audience, Grabyo offers significant commercial opportunities for monetising video on social media.